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The Softer Wilderness Coat

October 15, 2013

Filson Coated Short Cruiser - Seattle's venerable Filson company has long been known for the ruggedness of its handsome fabrics, most famously its 12.5-ounce, oil-finished tin cloth, cotton's badass cousin. For more than a century, the company has used this stuff to build tough, water-shedding jackets ideal for working in the perpetually rain-lashed and drizzle-spritzed Pacific Northwest. Back in the twenties, if you were headed up Alaska way to pan for gold or south to log outside "Stumptown," you were wearing Filson or you were very wet and cold. Career choices aside, the same remains basically true today.
But sometimes you want Filson's mid-century Americana style without the super-rugged, somewhat confining cloth. Sometimes you want a classic piece that keeps out the damp despite being soft and lightweight. And that's what you get with Filson's new Coated Short Cruiser Jacket. This coated version of the Short Cruiser is made in Seattle out of six-ounce Vachetta cotton and coated with a home-brewed mixture of waxes, pigments, and polish. The result is a fabric that feels like very thin, very supple leather. In fact, no one would object to wearing a shirt made out of this stuff.
Filson's new Seattle Fit, a thinned-down reimagining of loose pieces created with layering in mind, is just right for fall and spring and the Short Cruiser is the perfect demonstration of why. This is an everyday jacket that performs every day and looks equally good over a tie and a rucksack. [$260; filson.com]
– Jeremy Spencer